Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Thirteenth Tale

Wow. I'd heard a few of you exclaim over The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, but wasn't quite convinced until Karlene offered to lend it to me and it hooked me after the first page. I'm not sure it would matter to me what this author was writing about--it's the rhythm of her phrases and unexpected word choices that really make the book. Like this sentence: "The monotonous fragment of a tune was scratching at my brain." How can you not love a book with sentences like that?

The plot is wonderful, too. It kept me guessing right up to the end, and after I finished reading I was tempted to go straight back to the beginning to pick up details I missed the first time.

Have you read any great books lately? Feel free to recommend them in the comments section!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Aimee,

This is the first time I have really taken a look at the The Alphabet Garden Blog. I really like it!

I am three pages into The Thirteenth Tale and really feel that it's going to be a good read. I'll post more as the pages fly by.

Leslie

Anonymous said...

Hi Aimee,

I'm a little further in my reading of The Thirteenth Tale. Diane Setterfield has written a novel filled with such wonderful written expression. For instance a piece of mail is transformed into "a crisp cornered envelope, puffed up with its thickly folded contents...". Such descriptive words help the reader to see such items as if they are in hand instead of just written words.

I'm enjoying The Thirteenth Tale so much and can't wait to have more time to get back to reading it.

Leslie